AlertEnterprise Wins ASIS Accolades 2009 Security’s Best Winner Award

Re: Unique next generation software combines IT Security, Physical Access Controls and Industrial Controls to unveil blended threats.

Anaheim, Calif., September 21st, 2009 – AlertEnterprise™, Inc., a red hot software startup in the rapidly emerging space of security convergence for physical and logical security, has earned the ASIS Accolades 2009 Security’s Best Winner Award. AlertEnterprise is exhibiting its solutions in booth #2242 at the ASIS 55th Annual Seminar and Exhibits Conference.

Most industry security experts concur that physical access security, IT security, and critical infrastructure security, all reside in silos. This is a huge challenge for timely detection of terrorist events, malicious behavior and fraudulent activity. Jasvir Gill, founder and CEO of AlertEnterprise takes this mission to heart. His previous startup Virsa Systems was one of the most successful acquisitions by SAP to date and went on to become the heart of the SAP GRC business unit delivering application level security. “The most insidious risks are simple acts that slip between physical and logical security systems. They may not individually trigger an alert in any one system. But, in combination they create a risk that may defy detection unless your physical and logical security systems talk to each other.” says Jasvir.

The AlertEnterprise product lineup includes AlertAction, the award winning risk management, monitoring, incident and fraud detection solution that can help detect risks and offer a way to remediate these risks in real time combined with powerful alerting, automated remediation and actionable geo-spatial capabilities. Jasvir goes on to add, “Today’s win validates our belief that customers are ready to evolve to the next stage of security – the convergence of physical and logical security.” Furthermore, “AlertEnterprise delivers unique and innovative solutions that discover blended threat patterns already present in existing systems. It stitches together a fabric that completes the picture on risks that were previously undetectable and automates the process of remediating those risks. This puts us way ahead of solutions just looking at conventional security.”

About AlertEnterprise
AlertEnterprise provides the only complete solution for role-based, rules-driven access enforcement. AlertEnterprise addresses blended risk assessment and security across all logical systems, IT applications, databases, and physical systems from a single analytic dashboard, complete with auto-remediation capabilities. Additionally, AlertEnterprise delivers visual risk and event monitoring, alerting, mitigation, and analytics displayed on a geospatial map. AlertEnterprise is headquartered in Fremont, CA and on the web at http://www.alertenterprise.com/

ASIS International
ASIS International is the preeminent organization for security professionals, with more than 37,000 members worldwide. Founded in 1955, ASIS is dedicated to increasing the effectiveness and productivity of security professionals by developing educational programs and materials that address broad security interests, such as the ASIS Annual Seminar and Exhibits, as well as specific security topics. ASIS also advocates the role and value of the security management profession to business, the media, government entities and the public. By providing members and the security community with access to a full range of programs and services, and by publishing the industry’s No. 1 magazine—Security Management—ASIS leads the way for advanced and improved security performance.
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Contact:
AlertEnterprise, Inc.:
Pan Kamal
Director of Marketing
Tel: 510-897-6712
Email: pan.kamal@alertenterprise.com

ASIS International
Vicki Moeser
Tel: 703.518.1466
Email: vmoeser@asisonline.org
Online: http://www.asisonline.org/newsroom/index.xml

Where would you rather be during an emergency? I pick California…

I visited the California Emergency Management Agency (CAL-EMA), the combination of the former Office of Emergency Services and State Department of Homeland Security. I was attending the Sacramento Area Infragard Conference.

What is Infragard? you might ask. It is a private-public partnership with the FBI as the key promoter and sponsor of the alliance to help protect critical infrastructure from attack from malicious threat actors and pandemics etc.

AlertEnterprise attended as a vendor sponsor of the event. Representatives from various state agencies, law enforcement, services and security were present at the event to learn about and discuss cyber security, bio-terrorism, and protection of the food supply. Of great interest to all was the discussion of the H1N1 Flu Pandemic and the recommendations from a CDC (Center for Disease Control) expert. I had the opportunity to present the Security Impact Zones that AlertEnterprise adds value to. These are:
1. Securing critical business applications in regulated industries
2. Securing cyber assets for critical infrastructure of national importance
3. Information Assurance and Certification & Authorization for critical assets for Federal,
Military and Intelligence applications.

At the end of the session we got to tour the emergency management facility that sported a huge situation management room. This looked more like the state house chamber with a bank of wall size monitors in the front to display maps, TV feeds and other information. Each seat, in concentric semi circle rows had its own flat panel monitor, mouse, keyboard and a digital phone. Seating was assigned for key representative from various public agencies like CalTrans (California Department of Transportation), CDF (California Department of Forestry), FEMA, California State Police and many more. In the event of a public emergency there is even a place for the Governor of California (that’s right, the Arnold himself) to arrive with his staff and be situated in a private suite located off the main floor. There’s even a special media room for the press separated from main floor so that they can be updated on a minute by minute basis. No shortage of phone lines, data communication cables, satellite feeds, internet connections and anything else that supports staying connected while incidents are unfolding.

My hats off to all the dedicated public employees that are helping us at all times, during work and off-duty to make our homeland a safer place.

Now that’s security!

NERC CIP Compliance is Coming to a Nuke Near You…

I attended the Nuclear IT Strategic Leadership (NITSL) Symposium in Chicago last week. This was a virtual who’s who of IT experts in the nuclear space. This year’s conference was oriented towards Cyber Security. Nuclear Power generation is one of the most heavily regulated industries and has been extremely stringent in implementing physical security procedures. It was good to see physical and logical security convergence getting so much air time. One of the keynote speakers Susan Landahl, The Sr. VP of Operations for Exelon (they operate the largest fleet of nuclear plants in the country) in the keynote address said “Cyber Security is going to rival physical security in importance. Physical and Cyber better learn to get along; in fact we need to collocate them now in the same organization”. So how does NERC CIP figure into this? Well as you may know (if you have been following the regulations governing utilities), nuclear plants have been exempt from NERC CIP requirements. Under FERC Order 706-B, NERC CIP extends to cyber critical assets that may not be covered by NRC regulations, particularly 10 CFR 73.54 defining Cyber Digital Assets (CDAs). The tough part is that nuclear plant cyber and IT staff have to submit a security plan with a timeline to demonstrate how they will comply with NERC CIP. Some of the key stakeholders present in the ongoing dialog on how best to deliver security convergence for the Nuclear industry were the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) and of course the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). AlertEnterprise was a sponsor of the event and exhibited solutions for nuclear industry that included compliance automation across multiple regulations including NERC CIP and the nuclear requirements as well as an ongoing risk management methodology. For more information please contact me at pan.kamal@alertenterprise.com.